Firstly, I'll say, congratulations to the owner of OP. You have every reason to be proud of yourself, knowing fully well where you started from and how your curiosity has got you. Its no doubt curiosity rewards the curious!
Not all of them are newbies (with less than 30 activities), many of them have hundred of activities (from bounty reports and spam posts) and they would have been Sr. or Hero members if the merit system had not kicked off in 2018.
Your so right on this one. For a fact, a lot of accounts like this exists on this forum and they've really done nothing wrong by choosing a way to go 😁, the only thing is, they shouldn't expect same results on all paths. At times, the way doesn't lead to the same destination. So, my advice for them is this,
When you walk👣 a path and it isn't getting you where you need to be, you can always take a turn and you might just notice where you all got it wrong. And it doesn't end there, correct them.
The merit and activity systems works hand-in-hand in check mating each other under a simple principle. Know them, follow them and you'll only get better. 👍